BPO share of Indian-centric vendors to double: Gartner

Economic pressure leading to demand for low-cost business process outsourcing (BPO) centres is expected to double the market share of Indian BPO players by 2010, says Gartner.

Indian BPO providers, such as Genpact, WNS, Aditya Birla Minacs among others, have proved to be stiff competition to Western BPO providers, accounting for 5 per cent of market revenue generated among the top 150 providers in 2008, stated the Research and advisory firms findings.

By the end of 2008, the top 20 India-centric BPO providers accounted for $4 billion in revenue, representing 5 per cent of the $80 billion revenue of the top 150 BPO vendors.

“Indian BPO providers are swiftly evolving to balance exposure to vertical industries, currency and legislation issues. Their strategies include investing in onshore and nearshore delivery, and pioneering new area of analytics services or knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) where Indian BPO players are shining,” said Arup Roy, Senior Research Analyst at Gartner.

Although there are still no Indian vendors in the top 20 global BPO players, which includes firms such as IBM, Accenture, EDS (an HP company), half the top India-based BPO providers now operate local US and European sales and delivery centres. Overall, Indian BPO vendors achieved growth rates between 12 per cent and 200 per cent (however some of them are starting from fairly small revenue in the first place).

Indian BPO providers have had the most success servicing English-speaking requirements, from North America and the UK. North America has been the most successful sales location for Indian BPO providers, where the top-20 India-centric BPO providers generate about $2.2 billion in revenue. Western Europe showed strong growth, mostly in the UK, and accounted for $1.4 billion in revenue for the top 20 Indian BPO providers in 2008.

Gartner analysts stated that the Indian vendors will continue to grow as they have gained increased acceptance and reliably deliver services, focused acquisition in Europe.

“It is highly likely that many new competitors will emerge from India during the next few years. Contact centers and analytics services will likely see the highest growth, having the lowest entry barriers because relatively little technical or specific process expertise is required,” said Cathy Tornbohm, Research Vice President, at Gartner.